I've been swapping hard drives in my Mac Pro a lot lately, and they kept getting more and more difficult to pull out once they'd been soundly seated, to the point where I was in danger of bending the lip of the sled.

I was about to experiment with lubricating the things with a little graphite or similar, when I discovered that they slide out much more easily if you reach both hands inside the Mac and pull gently and evenly on the far edge of the drive itself.

How to pull stuck hard drive sleds from the Mac Pro
Authored by: mm2270 on May 22, '08 02:39:54PM

I'll have to remember this as well. I still have scars on my fingers from a previous attempt at removing a drive sled on one our Mac Pros.
Despite the fact that they can be a little hard to pull out, I'll take them any day over the older G5 tower drives. Those were even worse.

How to pull stuck hard drive sleds from the Mac Pro
Authored by: tatsu@tikeda.com on May 22, '08 08:06:23PM

I use another empty sled, clasp or hook the front ends together and pull. That's the best way. I borrowed the technique from Apple's takeapart of the Mac Pro, to shimmy the front fans, you are actually supposed to use a PCI slot cover much in the same way.

Don't ever EVER EVER use graphite to lubricate parts that are near electronics. Graphite is an electrical conductor, albeit weak and with a high resistance. You do not want graphite dust getting into electronic components, it could cause shorts or other electronic damage.